Port Hedland to Broome

Before leaving PH, I wanted to have a look at the port area. There were just two large container ships that I could see, the Atlantic Lion and the Golden Cirrus:

The tide was out, so the water level was very low in this area of big tides. This difference between high and low tide can be seen by the construction of the boat launching ramp:

The second photo shows a red pilot boat heading out to sea in order to assist another container ship to enter the harbour. There was also an unusual sea mist drifting in.

Watching all this was an NZ couple who were going round Australia in their self-converted campervan. They were going south, so I told them not to miss Monkey Mia.

Leaving town, it was impossible to miss the huge piles of salt, reclaimed from solar ponds:

It had been my intention to stay overnight at one of the roadhouses, in order to break the long journey to Broome. In the end I decided to keep going. It was such a hot day again, there would be nothing to do if I stopped.  Also, I managed to get behind a wide load travelling at only 85 kmh. It had a pilot vehicle in front and behind and the two were in radio contact to signal when the road was clear to overtake. It took me a while to understand this, and I was scared of a flying stone hitting my windscreen again. It pulled in for a lunch break at Sandfire Roadhouse, so I did the same and watched carefully so that I could set off in front:

The driver went round tapping all the wheels ( and there were a lot!) ; he decided he needed to change one so this allowed me to get away first.

As I was eating my sandwich, a group of hungry peacocks were hanging around hoping for crumbs. They were quite intimidating. When I didn’t give them anything (bread is not suitable for birds and smoked salmon and cream cheese was too good for them) more of the flock arrived and surrounded my car, first the males and then some females:



When I finally got to Broome, I had to find somewhere to stay, as my booking at Bali Hai starts tomorrow. The Continental had rooms: an old style hotel which has seen better days, but they gave me a room next to the pool, which was exactly what I needed after a long day at the wheel.